Do online crowds really exist? Proximity, connectivity and collectivity. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lee, Raymond L. M.
• Is Part Of: Distinktion. Volume 18:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 94
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Collectivism -- connectivity -- crowd -- digital -- individualism -- network -- multitude -- online -- proximity -- swarming; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1080/1600910X.2016.1218903
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1600-910X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The concept of online crowds reflects a shift in crowd semantics occasioned by the spread of digital media. It poses an alternative to the classical notion of crowd by addressing gatherings in digital rather than physical space. Researching online crowds assumes individual participation to be additive as inferred from tweets grouped around hashtags in microblogging. However, tweets may be understood as a type of inter-textual communication rather than spontaneous displays of emotion. It suggests that online gatherings inferred from these displays do not necessarily reflect the transformation of digital connectivity into crowds. Instead, digitally connected individuals assert their individuality to become members of a swarm. Compared with networks and multitudes, swarms do not separate the parts from the whole to imply a type of collectivism that subsists on the contradiction of the individualized whole. Online crowds are, therefore, not crowds per se but an instance of swarming where digital connectivity provides rationalized conditions for individual thoughts, feelings and actions to be grouped into convergent activities resembling self-organization without central control.